LatinNews Daily - 4 November 2024

*The European Union (EU)’s commissioner for trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, has hailed the entry into effect of a trade deal with Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, which he says covers €33bn (US$36bn) in trade and supports economies on both sides. According to an official EU press release, the EU, Colombia, and Peru concluded trade negotiations in 2011, and the EU-Colombia/Peru Trade Agreement was signed in June 2012. The negotiations for Ecuador's accession to the trade agreement with Colombia and Peru were concluded in July 2014 while the accession protocol for Ecuador was inked in November 2016 and has been provisionally applied since 1 January 2017. The EU press release cites as benefits of the trade agreement “opening markets for goods, services, government procurement and investment; better conditions for trade through new rules on non-tariff barriers, competition, transparency and intellectual property rights; a more stable and predictable environment for businesses with a bilateral dispute settlement mechanism and a mediation system for non-tariff barriers”, among other things. It also highlights that the EU is the third-largest trade partner and a major investor in the Andean countries and notes that Andean exports to the EU are mainly agricultural products (45%), mineral products (22%), and fisheries products (11%) while the EU mostly exports manufactured goods to the Andean countries (90%) – in particular machinery and transport equipment (36.5%) and chemical products (26.9%).